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Question

Questions about Upgrading computer

Mar 23, 2016 7:38PM PDT

I currently own a desktop and a laptop and have some questions about upgrade possibilities.

1. I noticed that graphics cards have "CUDA". If I am running a non-graphically intensive game, will these cores in any way enhance the speed of calculations? For example, will the time it takes to process a turn in turn-based strategy games be quicker?

2. I am thinking of replacing both my desktop and my laptop with a new computer. Budget is $5k Canadian. Will a fully-loaded laptop use significantly less power than a desktop that is the same price?

3. I am having trouble finding benchmarks for the following 2 GPUs:

MSI (R9 390X GAMING 8G) AMD Radeon R9 390X 8GB GDDR5 (for my desktop)

Dual 8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M with G-SYNC (for my laptop).

If I don't plan to run games at greater resolution than 1920 x1080, will the dual GPUs actually make a difference over a single GPU? (and again, would the 2nd GPU's Cuda benefit CPU performance?)

4. I am currently running Windows 7 32-bit on my laptop and desktop. Would 32 GB of high-speed memory dramatically speed up my computer, in addition to the processor, including in games where calculations are done at the end of a turn?

5. The main concern with buying a laptop is that the CPU just isn't as powerful as on a desktop, and I don't want to get behind the technology curve too much. I read that CPUs generally aren't the bottleneck and that a good cache helps me with other bottlenecks. Basically, I am wondering if memory and GPUs will be more important than the speed of the processor. I can get an 8 core processor for a desktop but only a quad-core 4.2 GHz processor with a laptop.

6. Is there a way to tone down the GPUs if I need more battery life? What about switchable graphics cards (in which case I would not have a dual graphics card in my laptop)?

Sorry for the long post.

Rob

Discussion is locked

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Answer
While that's a lot of questions.
Mar 23, 2016 8:19PM PDT

Let me share my son went with a 1KUSD buck gaming laptop. This one and we swapped the HDD for SSD for 150 bucks for a nice speedup overall.

Here's the single 960m and he tells me Metal Gear Solid 5 runs like butter.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-960M.138006.0.html has a lot of green so I can't guess what would need a dual 980m.

For 1K he got a 1080 screen, 16GB DDR4, sixth gen i7 and it's not running hot or noisy.

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Answer
Gaming
Mar 24, 2016 8:15AM PDT

If you have the space and you don't need it to be portable get a desktop.

Think flexibility/upgrade ability.

Cpu......some high end I5.
Gpu......gtx 970/980
Ram......16/32GB
Os.........64 bit or you won't have access to all that ram.

That combo should put you quite high up the gaming ladder.

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I'm no luddite but over 16GB?
Mar 24, 2016 8:32AM PDT
https://www.reddit.com/r/PCMasterRace/wiki/builds#wiki_about4 is the top end of the current PC Masterrace builds and has 8GB RAM. Just an i5 but a nice one and a very high end GPU.

I'd like to see the laptop for gaming to be a single 970m or for those that just have to, the 980m but dual GPUs is for those that don't know better.

Why? Because we are just spinning wheels at that point on 1080p 60Hz displays. And it's still not enough for 4K or UHD gaming.
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16 should be fine
Mar 24, 2016 9:32AM PDT

Run the machine and watch the ram usage.
Shouldn't take very long to figure out if it's enough.
As long as the swap file stays quiet I'm happy.

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Wait a moment.
Mar 24, 2016 5:34PM PDT

Since Windows is a virtual memory OS shouldn't all memory be used, even if for a trivial reason?

Why it does that is RAM beats mass storage every time.

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Ram usage
Mar 24, 2016 6:25PM PDT

Since Windows is a virtual memory OS shouldn't all memory be used, even if for a trivial reason?

Yes.....but if your looking at ram usage you have to toss out that cached number.
That's just windows collecting things.....it's rapid eject stuff.

I often run with very little free ram but if you look at the numbers a big chunk of ram usage is cached so I'm not concerned about it.

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That's better.
Mar 24, 2016 6:35PM PDT

I continue to encounter folk that don't do that or write in that the idle process is consuming all their CPU cycles.

I wish that Microsoft would have a Windows 101 online class.